Swordfight
by elloimthedoctor
Summary: "But still, you should teach me some of those skills, Father." Young River (not long after LKH) gets lessons from her father.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Her father was a great soldier.

It had only occurred to her, when four of them run into mahogany warrior chiefs in Space Amazon rain forests (who apparently wanted to sacrifice them for the ritual) and get tied up without any weaponry and backup plans. Her father, who would usually be the one to be dead first, grabbed one of the swords and sorted everything out. He quickly cut the ropes to free himself and the company, and fought his way through the TARDIS successfully protecting the rest. After he had stabbed the last warrior who followed them to the TARDIS, he closed the door and finally relaxed a bit.

River was impressed. She was good at shooting, but never had much experience with sword fighting. She wondered how introversive Rory yielded some of the best skills she'd ever seen. Spoilers, he said when she had asked him.

"But still, you should teach me some of those skills, Father."

* * *

**Okay, I'm writing this because honestly, who doesn't like badass Rory?**

**And of course, there's River who doesn't know that her father was a plastic Roman for 2000 years...**

**Just some Father/Daughter moments. Mainly.**


	2. The First Lesson

1.

So here was River with her father, in a gym occupied with surprisingly large amount of weaponries. The Doctor reluctantly agreed to redecorate one of the previous studios into martial gym, who was in fact a little bit curious about Rory's swordfight lessons. He was sitting in the lounge, looking at the vast space utilized for extreme martial activities through the window. Amy, of course, who also wanted to learn some tactics ("I need to keep myself safe!") joined the Doctor, and agreed to first watch Rory with his daughter.

Rory picked up one of the swords hanging on the wall and examined it. He swung it few times and handed it to River. River raised an eyebrow.

"We're using real swords?"

Rory chuckled. He picked one of the wooden sword designed for practices.

"Just you. I'm using this."

"You sure?" River smirked. Even though she knew she couldn't compare herself to her father, she had some harsh training for battles. The sword she was to use was sharp enough to cut the wood stick in half.

"Don't want to hurt my little girl." Rory grinned. "Not too much."

"Am I supposed to be scared at that?" River said, examining the sword. It wasn't heavy, but still had some weight to make her slow down a bit than usual.

"Be careful, you two!" Amy's worried voice called through the speaker. Rory nodded, looking at Amy through the window.

"Should we begin?" Rory said, turning to his daughter.

* * *

River was sweating. She took a step back, guarding off Rory's wood sword. Rory was very fast, River realized, and was very good at controlling his strength. River took another step back, barely parrying Rory's stroke toward her waist. Rory paused a bit, giving River time to catch her breath.

"You're going easy on me." River managed to smile.

"Just making sure you're okay." Rory replied, swinging the sword. River took a deep breath and leaped toward her father, sword aiming his right shoulder. But Rory smoothly dodged and moved himself to face River's back. River sharply turned and gave another blow, which Rory countered easily with one hand.

"You're putting too much strength on your shoulders. Relax a bit." Rory commented.

"I'm trying!" River growled. She brandished her sword quickly. Left, right, up, and back to left- Rory returned every stroke with firm power. This infuriated and amazed River at the same time. Whatever happened to him in the future – from her point of view- had obviously made Rory a strong man. River wasn't used to Rory being the one in charge or knowing everything. The memory of him she had as Mels was not matching with current Rory she was spending time with of late.

"Concentrate!" Rory reprimanded as he twisted his wrist to move the sword. The wood unexpectedly changed its route and hit River's arm. She hissed in pain and retreated.

"You could have got your arm cut off if I was holding a real sword."

"Sorry." She winced in pain as she rubbed where she'd been hit. River knew that stroke would leave bruise for few weeks. She repositioned herself and held the sword with two hands. C_alm down_. She could hear her four-beat pulse roaring in her ear.

Few more times they merged into each other, and each time got harder for River to concentrate because of the pain. Her wrist started to ache from the pressure, and her muscles were screaming in stuffy tension. She panted and prepared herself for Rory's next attack. Rory mostly aimed her body, but this time he went for the legs- which River didn't see coming and resulted her to step back rapidly, but she couldn't protect herself from the blow. Rory's wood sword stroke River's thighs, making her gasp in pain. She barely clutched her weapon as she lost her position, but she couldn't block her father's continuous attacks- another blow on the shoulders made her fall down to the floor, dropping the sword. She felt wooden sword swung and placed near her neck.

"I'm sorry dear. Didn't mean to strike this hard." He apologized and retreated his stick. He lowered his body to look at River's wounds. He winced as he revealed black bruise and swollen flesh on River's shoulder. River bit her lip as Rory touched her sensitive flesh.

"I'm fine." River muttered. She looked up at her father and found guilt on his face.

"I should have thought better. You're still too young."

"Am not."

"But you are, River." Rory massaged River's arm and she let out a painful sob. "Compared to older you I've been seeing, you're not strong enough."

"I will be." River said, giving a promising look to her father. "Because you'll make me."

Rory seemed to be lost for words by that.

"River! Are you alright?" Amy ran to them, her face concerned as she saw River clutching her sore shoulder. "You were too hard on her!" Amy shouted at Rory. She sat down and caressed River softly. The Doctor appeared, his hands full with what looked like first-aid kits.

"Blimey, Rory Pond- thought it's been quite a while since you last held your sword! Your skills didn't perish!"

"It _has_ been a long time!" Rory argued. "And first-aid kits won't do; I'm taking her to med bay."

"I don't need to go to med bay. It's only contusion. I can cope." River retorted.

"I'm the nurse here, and I'm the one who copes with things. Don't argue with me about that, Melody Pond." Rory said, helping her to get up.

"Okay, _Dad_." River pouted, emphasizing the last word.

* * *

**Just because I like the Ponds reprimanding River. What a cute family.**


	3. The Last Centurion VS The Oncoming Storm

2.

Rory didn't let River to rejoin the martial training until she was completely healed, but agreed that watching him would help improve her knowledge about Rory's certain skills he used. So River sat in the lounge with her mother and looked at her father and husband facing each other, holding wooden sticks. ("I can't trust Doctor with real sword- he's going to hurt himself!" Amy had complained.)

The Doctor, who claimed that he had magnificent skills in every kind of swordfight, was actually bit tense. The last time he actually held the sword was when he regenerated from Ninth to Tenth form, and he remembered clearly that he had gotten his hand cut off by the Sycorax. He silently thanked God when Rory grabbed wooden sword; this time, unfortunately, he wasn't in the middle of regeneration cycle and had no ability to restore his separated hand.

"You'll have to understand, this is first time this body fights with a sword. It's been about 200 years after my last swordfight, and that time I was bit unsettled because I had just gone through the regeneration process." _What was I thinking_, the Doctor mused.

"No excuses, Doctor." Rory grinned. "You better be ready to set an example for my daughter."

"Yes, that. Uh- I will try." The Doctor swung the wooden stick in his hand.

"Please don't try to intentionally hurt my husband, Father." River's voice echoed from the speaker.

"But he deserves it." Amy chipped in. "Go, Rory!"

"Thanks, Pond." The Doctor sarcastically replied.

The Doctor tensed and positioned himself as Rory did too. Two men stared at each other intensely. The Doctor took the first leap and aimed Rory's shoulder, but it was blocked by Rory who then pushed him with his own weapon. Two men stood there, both pushing each other with all their power. The Doctor was first to break the link; he retreated few steps and then again brandished his weapon toward his opponent again.

Rory found that the Doctor was surprisingly calm when using his weapon. He was called 'The Oncoming Storm', after all. He understood every kind of warfare. Rory quickly dodged the Doctor's strikes and started his own attack. The Doctor and Rory quickly gave and took many blows.

"Having fun?" The Doctor asked as they parted.

"Oh, yeah." Rory enthusiastically replied. Surely the Doctor was one of the strongest and most skilled opponents he had ever faced. Rory felt his Roman blood (well, not exactly blood since he was plastic, but as a metaphor) boil with excitement. After all, both of them knew, that living such a long time would not be as good if there were no adventures.

"This me is probably the best swordsman, I have to say." The Doctor chatted as he received Rory's stroke. "Tenth body was rubbish. Got my hand cut off. Had to grow it back."

"Grow it back? You're like worms." Rory said in disgusted tone. The Doctor laughed.

"You can talk, Mr. Pond." The Doctor dodged Rory's wooden blade. "How many times did you die then came back to life?" Their swords met and both pushed vigorously. "You're worse than a Time Lord." The Doctor said breathlessly.

"Well, most of the time it was _your _fault that I died!"

"How is it _my_ fault?!"

"Well, I was shot and erased from the existence because I was saving _you_ from getting shot from the Sirulians-"

"That was not my fault! Things were crazy that day, and you said you immediately become the Roman!"

"Who you erased _again_ when rebooting the universe-"

"To get real you back to life!"

"Enough, boys!" Amy's irritated voice got two men to separate from each other. "Honestly, you're fighting like kids."

"We are not fighting like kids, Pond, we are setting example of an excellent skills of swordfight." The Doctor pouted.

"Yeah, whatever. You two are taking too much of our time." Amy said, stepping out of the lounge and into the gym, with River following her.

"Amy, seriously, we're in a time machine." Rory dully said.

"She is not a machine!" The Doctor protested.

"I just want to get myself going! I haven't got any chance to actually fight." Amy looked around at the weapons and randomly chose a sword from wall.

"Stop it, Amy, that's not for you to use- I got it from Napoleon!" The Doctor exclaimed. River eyed him suspiciously. "Okay, stole, but still!"

"Oh stop it, Doctor." River looked as Amy randomly brandished the sword to Rory, who looked a bit scared. "Looks like my parents are having fun." She mused. River grinned and grabbed a sword from the wall that was placed right next to apparently Napoleon's. "Fancy a match?"

"Stop it, River, I got that from King Arthur, you can't just-"

"You mean you stole it from Camelot? Ooh, love a fairy tale."

"I didn't steal it- and it's not a fairy tale! Well- I'll have to say Arthur is not much of a pleasant bloke like he's known. He hates me!"

"Oh, I bet he does."

"It's not funny, River- he tried to stab the TARDIS with Excalibur!"

* * *

**So there's bit of Merlin...which is currently giving me no reason to live on. Weeeeeell except for DW Christmas special. aaand the rest of series 7, aaaaand there's 50th anniv. special...**

**ANYWAY! I hope you enjoyed it. I'll write some more, but blimey it's hard to write actions scenes.**

**PS) I probably should have made Doctor really clumsy with swords so that Rory gets some major beating out of him, but I have some plots to add later on in the story. Hush now, spoliers!**


End file.
